Sustainability in healthcare for Child, Youth, and Family - Term Paper Example

Student name Student number Unit name and number Title of assignment Lecturer details Word count: 2634 Introduction There is no doubt that the Australian families play an integral role in creating a robust wellbeing in society. However, families are increasingly facing challenges from nearly all facets of life. Today’s families have to withstand challenges in their environment, which in many cases places extreme demands on families on how they use various resources ( Ham, 2007). More often than not, the health and wellness of such families deteriorate compounding to other negative outcomes with far reaching implications. The social, economic, and political dynamics are some of the sources of stress that affect how families operate and cope with challenges facing them. The influence of these variables on families remains the single most important source of stress, which place families at the receiving end. Health professionals specializing in child, youth, and maternal healthcare needs have a critical role in alleviating stress and promoting coping strategies. With many professionals working as sole practitioners, the need for developing and implementing effective solutions has never been that important. Within the current health care industry, many health professionals work as sole practitioners and the vital responsibility of making sustainable improvement to families with stress. Achievement of meaningful improvement will require sole practitioners to adopt sustainable practices and work with families to strengthen families and enable them respond to challenges facing them. Sustainability in health care Over years, there has been many public debates on sustainability of health care. Whether the debates have centered on resource distribution or the role of health care givers in meeting all needs of families, the term sustainability has found consistent use. The terms sustainability has a wide definition as it focus on several elements to create an augmented meaning. More important, there are various definition, which attempt to expound on sustainability and its relevance to the health care industry. According to the Corner Stone Consulting group (2002), sustainability is a process where agents work to ensure that values and processes of an effort remained shared and deeply felt between various entities. In addition, the term sustainability encompass the institutionalization of policy and practice, and securing of both human and financial resources for long-term use. In another definition, the World Health Organization (2002) put forth that sustainability is the characteristic of a project to maintain effective and long term functioning while ensuring high treatment using available resource and instilling a high level ownership and utilization of resources between government and community players. These definitions are critical in understanding the need of sustainability in address health care needs among Australian families. While these definitions have some variation, they have some unique elements and concepts worth exploring. A discussion of the term sustainability will inevitable provide a coherent understanding of the concept and provide the relation between the concept and health care programs in Australia. To begin a discussion on the term, it is worth noticing that both definition of sustainability mention resources. Similar to sustainability in other industries, health care sustainability does underscore the need for effective utilization of resources (Simmons, 2011). Today, there are few resources available at the government and community level, which has several implication. Firstly, few resources imply that health care programs must consider the scarcity of resources, whether human or financial. Secondly, it is also vital to note that resource allocation must consider longevity because family challenges increase the demand for resources. (Sochan, 2008). Because of resource scarcity, the definition of sustainability point to responsiveness in resource allocation. Society is dynamic and does not sit in isolation. According to Barnes and Rowe (2011), there are many environment challenges and lifestyle dynamics, which expose families to new and acute challenges. In most cases, there is an overarching need for new resources, which are scarce and limited. The need to promote sustainable use of resources necessitates stakeholders in the health care industry become flexible and respond to varying needs accordingly. Flexibility is an important trait of sustainability because many changes are unpredictable (Leffers & Mitchell, 2010). This means that affect response to child, youth and family needs require extensive consideration of the underlying dynamics. Because there is no magic bullet, intervention in responding to family needs, being flexible is key in achieving health goals in every community. This term remain an integral component in the definition of sustainability. Another vital component of the definition is ownership and building of capacity. When it comes to building sustainable health care programs, the ownership of the program is not the sole responsibility of the provider, but the community as well. When it comes to sustainability, there is need for a program to run longer than expected because of the potential gains people receive. This is the primary reason why ownership of the programs makes this goal achievable. Because of this goal, the definition emphasize the importance of ownership where government work with communities and help them own programs. In the case of health care programs, providers such as sole proprietors work with families and help them own health management strategies (Leffers & Mitchell, 2010). This stance relates to capacity building, because this is what enables ownership among families. Families have many resources and enabling them to realize this is vital. Creating sustainability in programs entails building capacity through strategies that utilize opportunities and strength families have to overcome challenges facing them. Theories that influence sustainability The role of sustainability in enabling health care practitioners to meet the needs of families is overwhelming. Sustainability blends well in health care industry because it informs practitioners on how best to deliver health care. Several theories, both primary health care and community development theory situate sustainability in health care. A significant theory that influence the concept of sustainability in health care is the health promotion theory. Health promotion theory, concerns itself with enabling people understand the determinants of health and gain control over them to improve the health outcomes (El Ansari & Philiphs, 2004). Over years, health care providers realized that health promotion has a fundamental effect on health care and could improve health and wellness in society. As result, this theory developed to address how practitioners can improve health in society. The World Health Organization understand health promotion as strategies that help patients understand about the social, environmental, and economic environment and their influence on health (Davies, & Macdowall, 2006). The theory thus reinforce the role of sustainability in improving health outcomes. As the paper discussed, sustainability entails building capacity and creating ownership that makes a program run successfully. More important, it also address how resources are used to achieve a goal. Using the theory, it is essential to note that health promotion calls for effective use of resources and control of the environment determinants to improve wellbeing. Consequently, there is no doubt health promotion theory underscore the positive role of sustainability in improving health and wellness among many families today. Apart from the primary health care theory above, community development theories reinforce the need for sustainability in the health care industry. An elaborate theory is the system theory, which entail “a set of elements standing in interaction,” according to von Bertalanffy (Ham, 2007). In the context of the Australian families, individual families are the unit of the system that makes society. The system theory posit a system could be closed or open making it interact with the universe. In open systems, the components of the system freely interact with the universe, but this is not the case with a closed system. However, most open system derive benefits from interacting with the environment. Putting sustainability into place, an open system can gain resources from the environment and contribute other resources necessary for the continuity of the universe surrounding the system (Jones et al, 2004). This configuration underscore the need for sustainability where health providers work with families in making effective use of resource. Just as a system, interact with its environment so does sustainability eases pressure-facing stakeholders such as families or sole practitioners. The system theory, a robust community development theory, emphasis on the need for interaction and collaboration, which are basis tenet of sustainability approach in health care. Rationale for addressing sustainability Barnes and Rowe (2011) agree that families are constantly facing new risks that emerge from surrounding environment. In their book, the duo emphasize that dynamics of life have placed considerable weight on families exposing them to risks. This is the primary reasons why Barness and Rowe (2011) agree that a sustainable approach is necessary to address various family needs. Families today face many health care challenges and needs, which increase pressure and the demand for health care services. More than before, families in many parts of the world have to interact with a complex environment that increase the demand for health care services and programs that promote wellbeing. Presently, families have to navigate complex challenges and face overarching health care needs while balancing many aspects of lifestyles. A fundamental need among many families is how health determinants shape health and wellbeing of families. Many factors in society affect the quality of life and determine the health of individuals who experience the influence of these factors. For instance, modern aspects of lifestyle such as gaming or watching of television has considerable influence on health of families. However, many families do not understand how such lifestyles affect their wellbeing. The complex need here is getting a robust understanding of how families can arrive at health (Sessions & Detsky, 2010). Because health relies on many aspect of human life such as social and mental wellbeing, enabling families understand the influence of health determinants is key. This need continue to give health care providers such as nurses and sole proprietors a reason to provide health care services to families. In addition, socio challenges place demand on families creating an environment where health goals become difficult to achieve. In Australia, many families spend less time together because they have to align themselves with complex social dynamics. To some parents, working and raising children at the same time is a daunting task because many of them have less time to spend with their children. Some have to contend with children who are spending less time speaking with their parents, but spending more time online in social networks. Consequently, there is a need to establish social equilibrium and reduce social tension that families and youth experience. This need is integral to the functioning of families and the realization of heath goals. Few families face no challenge from economic forces that generate pressure among families. In Australia today, many families are working for long hours to sustain the rising cost of living. While this is desirable and helpful in enabling parents meet their demands of life, it make families experience tension that could have a toil on the health of family members. For instance, parents may face increasing level of stress as they address the demands of life. The increasing number of hours parents must work make them less available to interact with their children or take rest from work. This situation is a recipe for disaster among families because it increases stress levels among families. Thus, there is a need to help families balance their workflows with their need for rest and recreation, which influence health and wellness. Children have a need to develop in a safe environment where they can have positive and successful early brain development. During early childhood, children must receive proper care to develop their brains well. This is because children learn from the environment and assimilate what they learn from their environment (Klingberg, 2012). With the Australian society being dynamic, many parents are having less time with the children. There is need for parents to create positive environment where children experience positive early brain development. This is essential in enabling children experience positive life experience. When children have normal brain development, they tend to avoid mental conditions that could otherwise render them abnormal. Strategies for addressing need among families The tasks of addressing needs among families is daunting, but sole practitioners can handle the task if they well prepare. First, sole practitioners must work with families in designing environment where children can receive require childcare. Some parents may not have the understanding of how to design an environment to raise their children (Simmons, 2011). By working with families, sole practitioners will reinforce the participation of parents and enable the creation of environment where children can receive positive development. Considerably, such families will have less problems with mental conditions or maladjustment that some families experience. Sustainability focus on creating capacity, which require facing with challenge such as lack of proper interaction at the family level. Such a problem could cascade into a severe challenge where children and youth fail to find attachment with their families (Ogilvie, Allen, Laryea, & Opare, 2003). While this is a critical need worth addressing, eliminating the input of families is not likely to remedy the problem. Consequently, sole practitioners have a latitude of working with families with the aim of understanding their strengths. For instance, sole practitioners should look at exploiting strengths such as communication and resilience to enable families overcome issue facing them. Working with families is a critical strategy that is bound to produce many benefits. If well used, the sole practitioners will promote sustainability in rolling out any heath program at the family level. Sole practitioners could also communicate with children, youth, and families to determine the issue facing them and provide counselling or tailor made program that address their needs. Sustainability focuses on creating ownership of a program or solution, which in this case require participation of family members (Firth, 2007). By taking time to communicate with family members, sole practitioners will have considerable time to solve issue facing families, but at the same time help families learn how to check for their problems and create innovative solutions. Support sole practitoners require The success of sole practitioners in addressing complex and varying need among today’s families rest on the preparedness of these health providers. Sole practitioners who intend to succeed must possess a wealth of competences and attributes. First, sole practitioners must maintain health state of mind by balancing their commitment to work and the need to relax and undertake recreation. Caregiver too suffer from burnouts and this could have a negative impact on their performance. To ensure that sole practitioners work effectively, they have to take periodic rests and eliminate any chances of developing burnout, which could affect their work and how they deliver interventions to families. A sole practitioner who is tire or unwell is less likely to put his effort towards meeting the needs of families going through stress. There is no doubt that good environments have a healing effect. It is essential for health care practitioners to have the best living conditions that promote relaxation and mental wellbeing (Forster et al., 2011). This implies that sole practitioners will have less chances of facing issue that can wear them and reduce their ability to deliver health care services to children, youth of families. Thus, the choice of residence and areas of visit, after work is critical if these health care providers must attain optimal wellbeing. Living in a good environment is a predictor of the effectiveness sole practitioners’ show in their work. Sole practitioners should undertake personal development to reinforce their competences and gain new traits. Health care demands require new skills and competences that could be acquired through training. For instance, many sole practitioners need to understand the role of counselling and effective communication in their work. In addition, learning new concepts such as cultural and political competence is also critical in fueling sole practitioners into serving the needs of patients effectively (Rahman & Schnelle, 2008). Personal development also give sole practitioners a while rounded development that help them gain new skills such as communication and effective strategies of delivering health resources. Thus, personal development continue to be a fundamental avenue for sole practitioners for responding to the needs of families, youth, and children. 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